Spotlight

Juliana Horner

Juliana Horner is an artist living and working in New York City whose current interests include makeup, drawing, and playing on different keyboards. She loves learning, and is in a constant state of renewal.
Portrait by @shaunstlucas

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. Hello, I’m Juliana. I’m an artist. I’ve drawn and done makeup and really any act that works my brain creatively as soon as I’ve had enough motor skills or mental energy to use the medium in question, and am still learning everyday. I grew up in a large family; I am the oldest. I pay attention to detail. I love spending time by myself drawing, doing makeup, taking pictures and videos, hiking, listening to and making music, dancing, and crying, and when I am sufficiently charged, I like to hang out with friends and meet new people.

How did your interest in your work begin? Most of the things I do are a result of my boredom of reality. For whatever reason, nothing I see pleases me and I have to make it my own. So I work.

What was it like living and working in Nashville? Living and working in Nashville was nice, very spacious and green and nostalgic, but I just recently (about 3 months ago) moved back to New York. I attended Pratt Institute for fashion design 2010-14 and moved back to Nashville for 3 years on a whim spun out of frustration. Then I was ready for a change, so I moved back up here. I feel pretty disoriented, but optimistic.

What kinds of things are influencing your work right now? It’s hard to say where my influence comes from in a paragraph. I am influenced by living in the moment perhaps. I feel all things are connected, which means I don’t have to go to some distant measure to begin creating. The corner of my bedpost could be shaped in such a way that influences the curve of my eyeliner, if that makes sense. And then the nature of the line changes and that sparks memory. I don’t believe mistakes are detrimental, usually it’s just that what you are creating is longing to be something else. And you have to respect that.

What are some recent, upcoming, or current projects you are working on? I am currently working on two drawing series: one is a depiction of all the zodiac signs, the other a book of 100 of my “stream-of-consciousness” drawings which I’m going to entitle “Paper Brite”. I am also working on some makeup video work for the Peabody Essex Museum.

What is your absolute favorite place in the world to be? I’m not sure if there is a specific space I like the most anymore. It could be anywhere, as long as I am calm and open.

What were you like in high school? I’m not sure why, but when I think of high school, I wince. It’s not that I had a horrible time or anything. I think it was just hard mentally. I had a lot of feelings I wanted to get out, but I compartmentalized them into physical spaces I thought would be acceptable to other people. It takes a long time to realize that it really doesn’t matter what other people think.

Can you share one of the best or worst reactions you have gotten as a result of your work? A commenter once told me to drink bleach because of the way I was using mascara.

Top 3 favorite or most visited websites and why? Haha. Yahoo, Gmail, and Amazon. Because websites are boring!

Who would you ideally like to collaborate with? Collaborations are not ideal to me. I like to do my own thing to inspire other people to do their own thing. I understand collaboration is important to humanity, but I know that my calling is the liberation of personal identity.

What are you really excited about right now? I am excited to have just moved. It’s not even about where I am, but rather the fact that I was able to let go of how things were that I could change. Even though its very hard and I miss those that I love, change is my most exciting state.

Most embarrassing moment? I’m not really embarrassed of anything. Sometimes I act kind of crazy on the internet, but it’s like, who cares? I’m crawling out of my skin, I have to do whatever I want if I’m going to survive this insane world and my insane mind.

What artists or designers are you interested in right now? I like @beigetype on Instagram. I have a hard time liking anything fashion-wise because I went to school for fashion.

What is one of the bigger challenges you and/or other artists are struggling with these days and how do you see it developing? I am bothered by the fact that companies who sell things (naturally) repost my work and get thousands and thousands of viewers and all I get is a few followers and no rent money. It’s bullshit and they can all suck it. Luckily, I’m the one who thought of it, not them. That’s what’s developing. Me. Everyday. I offer no solutions. I only want to complain!